Sunday, February 26, 2012

Three weeks ago, I wrote about the Peterbororough dogs (you can find the posts here.....scroll from bottom to top for the whole story). I was accused of slandering facts and distorting the truth with regard to these poor animals. I was accused of lying about the fact that the founder of the Ontario "rescue" organization "Give A Dog A Second Chance" had an outstanding warrant for cruelty to animals stemming from an incident in New York state some years ago.

After contacting the Sheriff's Department south of the border I received the warrant (you can find it here), and I must tell you that it's extremely disheartening to discover that one individual can be charged with animal cruelty in one city, and then flee those charges to simply open up shop somewhere new.

In a nutshell : 14 Dogs were left cramped in one vehicle struggling for air on an extremely hot, humid day (according to records, it can be easily surmised that these animals were in this condition for roughly 40 minutes at minimum). As a result the individual was charged.

Here's the problem. The individual was never found guilty. Why you may ask? Because they simply left New York state and retreated back to Ontario, free to continue such practices. Hence the outstanding warrant still in place.

The latest actions from "Give A Dog A Second Chance" speak volumes on the character of those involved in the organization. They started a Facebook group accusing one of their "detractors" of being an alcoholic (and anorexic, and a slut....the list goes on). Their "proof"? They stole pictures from one individual's personal profile page (classy) and published those pictures (editor's note : the page, and pictures have been taken down after the police received notification). All you have to do is see the page for yourself...and then determine if this organization should still be in business.

This particular issue speaks to a problem in animal welfare that reaches far beyond the actions of this one "rescue" organization. How is it that we live in a society where animal abusers (the warrant also uses the term "torture", since leaving one, let alone 14 dogs in a van under such conditions is exactly that) can roam freely from city to city and continue this behaviour? Unfortunately unless you are talking about someone like Michael Vick who is constantly in the public eye, there is no method to stay on top of those who continue to evade the law when it comes to animal cruelty.

Guess what? You strangled three cats and put them in a trash bin in Ottawa? That's fine, just head on down to sunny Florida and start fresh! I'm sure things like this happen all the time, and of course it wouldn't be so easy if one were to commit such a heinous act to a human.....when are lawmakers going to wise up to the fact that cruelty to animals is no less horrific?